


the ugly ring

by orlalalando



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Engagement, Fluff, Keith is stupid, M/M, Minor Adam/Shiro (Voltron), engagement ring - Freeform, it's also my first time writing in so long b nice, they're both stupid, they're there being dads, this is rlly short, with illustrations !!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25525648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orlalalando/pseuds/orlalalando
Summary: keith's engagement ring is, well, it´s absolutely hideous.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 73





	the ugly ring

"There he is!" said Shiro.

Adam turned around, watching as Keith entered the restaurant. He shifted, eyeing the chicken rolls in the menu anxiously. Takashi hadn't let him order until Keith arrived.

He sat down in front of them. "Hey, Shiro. Hi, Adam"

"Here comes the broom. Or rather, one of them" said Adam, teasing.

"Adam, we talked about this" Takashi had told him to hold back on the teasing before they got out of the house.

"That wasn't teasing!"

"Shut up and order, alright. I heard they have some good chicken rolls here”

Keith was, for a lack of a better term, really on edge. He wasn’t too worried about Shiro, but Adam always could read him annoyingly well. He was hoping the food would be enough to distract him, at least until he gathered the courage to bring it up himself.

“I can’t believe you’re going to marry” Shiro said.

“How’s Lance doing?”

He cheered up, glad they were talking about Lance now. “He’s researching all he can about venues and flowers” Then he remembered his complicated feelings towards Lance, but he kept talking, for the sake of keeping his composture. “We’re going out of the state to meet his family next week. We finally have an excuse now”

“And” Shiro smiled eagerly. _Please don’t ask. Please don’t ask._ “where’s the ring?”

Ah, fuck. “Oh, it’s right here” He showed them their right hand, wrapped in a black glove.

“Do you ever take those smelly gloves off?” Adam groaned, but he was smiling. “You’re supposed to show off an engament ring”

“You took yours off to shower the other day” Shiro said.

“Takashi, I’ve been wearing it so long there’s a white stripe in my finger”

“How’s the Academy?” Keith asked, now that they had distracted themselves off the subject.

“Oh, it’s going good” Adam assured. “We have so many recruits, since Lance talked about us in his channel”

“They’re maybe too many recruits” Shiro complained, who had been hit by the full force of all the extra hours that came with the schedule changes.

“Oh, stop whining”

“You’re not the one who has barely any time for himself anymore”

“No, but I’m the one who had to slave over like, a hundred thousand applications” Adam reminded him.

“We’re getting off-track here” Shiro dismissed it. “Keith, take off your smelly glove and show us the ring”

“Oh, look! The food’s here” Keith yelled, with exceeding excitement. Just as the waiter was putting the dishes down and he was worrying he had maybe said it _too_ excitedly, Adam glared at him with the look of someone who can read your thoughts with little to no effort. He was doomed.

“Come on, Keith. Show the ring” Adam’s tone was plain, but it was a clear “you’re gonna tell me right now what’s happening”. Keith didn’t know if he wanted to take his chances.

“Those chicken rolls look great, Adam” He regretted his decision as soon as he made it, and as he was reaching with his chopsticks to Adam’s plate, Shiro turned his head at him as well.

Now they were both glaring. How could he let this happen? Oh, let’s face it. He was just never good at keeping secrets. Especially not once Adam caught on.

“Keith, is something wrong?” Shiro asked, and he looked so worried he had no choice but to show the wretched thing.

(This was the way they always got their way. Adam caught on quicker tan Shiro and Shiro pulled it out of Keith in a way Adam’s stern look couldn’t. It was sweet. Keith would call it annoying)

“Alright, guys. No need for all the fuss” He tried to laught it off. He pulled off his glove, and the ring was indeed underneath. He then stretched his arm so Adam and Shiro could have a better look.

They were silent for a few seconds (something that Keith was, at this point, used to) and then they shared a couple looks, to test that they were on the same page. Adam shook his head ever so lightly, and Shiro smiled at Keith immediately after.

“Wow, Keith, it’s so… rustic” Shiro managed to force out of his throat.

Adam had a frown. “I’m sure he put a lot of thought into it” he said.

The thing was absolutely hideous, alright. Keith himself would’ve said so right to Lance’s face the second he looked at the horrible thing, if the proposal hadn’t been so lovely and Lance hadn’t had been smiling so brightly. It wasn’t just cheap, which Keith wouldn’t have minded, really! It was just so very awful. He didn’t know jackshit about metalwork but, good lord, even a monkey would’ve been able to produce something better if he put his mind to it.

And the thing is, it wasn’t just so ugly that half the people he had shown it to had fell in an uncomfortable silence and then made forced compliments until it was appropriate to change the subject, and the other half had made comments like “the thought is what counts” and “oh my god, it’s so unique”. Only Romelle, ever the brutally honest girl, had told him right to his face that she didn’t think Lance paid more than ten dollars for it.

Keith wasn’t shallow. He would marry Lance in a dumpster, and would get engaged with the toy rings that came inside cereal boxes, wearing a potato sack; if that was all they could afford. But they had good finances. Lance’s youtube channel was paying rent lately. They weren’t in a bad place, economically. So why was it Lance couldn’t bother to find him a ring that didn’t look like he bought it on a Wish sale? It was something he was gonna have to wear for the rest of his life, for fuck’s sake! But he couldn’t even show it to Adam and Shiro without feeling embarrassed.

The more he thought about it, the more he just felt that maybe, Lance just didn’t care enough.

“Guys, the thing is hideous, alright” he said, plainly.

“What are you talking about?” Adam asked, sounding outraged. “It’s so… unique!”

“The thought is what counts, Keith”

“Cut the crap, alright?” he demanded. He looked down at the thing and made a face. “It’s so ugly I wanna cry. Except I literally wanna cry, because Lance looked at this ring and thought ‘yeah, this is the quality my future husband deserves’”

“Are you guys going through a rough patch, Keith? You know we could help out”

“It’s not that, Adam” Keith assured. “He bought me a suit, took me to this impossibly fancy restaurant, there was fireworks!”

“Maybe he spent so much in the actual proposal, he only had so much for the ring?” Shiro attempted to help. Adam noticed he hadn’t touched his chicken rolls, and decided to solve that at once.

“I don’t even know, guys. Maybe he has bad taste? I mean, he does have a couple too many baggy pants?” Keith vented. Shiro started rubbing his back. “This is just driving me insane”

“Have you told Lance about this?”

“No” he took a bite out of his sauted veggies. That made him feel a little better. “He keeps talking about the ring and asking how I like it and I- I don’t wanna seem shallow? I love him however, you know?”

“Keith, an engagement ring is a symbol of love” Shiro reassured him. “You’re gonna be wearing it for _years_ to come. It’s okay to be upset that you don’t feel like it reflects that”

“You should talk to Lance about this, Keith. I’m sure he’s just stupid and bought the first thing he saw or something”

“Not helping, Adam” Shiro said, deadpan.

“He’s right. But how am I supposed to go about this?”

“Just be direct” Shiro took a bite of his noodles. “But tell him you love him first, it could get ugly pretty quick”

“Now you’re the one not helping, idiot” Adam called out.

They were having breakfast in bed, next morning. It was a Saturday. Keith probably should’ve chosen a different day to bring this up, a day where he wouldn’t be home all day, in case Lance got upset that he hated the ring. It had been eating him up last night, though, and he scrunched his nose everytime he laid eyes on it. Besides, it was no good starting a marriage with hang-ups, he figured.

Keith looked at Lance. He still looked sleepy, curly messy hair and loose shirt showing his collarbone as he took a bite of his waffle. Keith wasn’t particularly religious, but he prayed to whoever was listening that he came up with the right words, cause he really didn’t want to lose this boy over something as stupid as this.

“Lance, babe” he said.

Lance looked up from his cup of coffee and took a sip. “What?” he said, as if he got caught doing something.

“Listen, you know I love you” he started, catiously. “And I’m really happy you’re my fiance”

Lance smiled. “Me too”

He swallowed and shifted in the bed. “Lance, I want to talk to you about something” He might as well get it over with. “It’s about the ring”

“Holy fucking shit, Keith” Lance yelled. “Fucking finally!”

Keith stared at him for a second at the unforeseen reaction. He expected Lance to be angry, just not in this… direction? What did he mean ‘finally’?

“What do you mean ‘finally’?”

“You know, Keith, you have just about ruined every fucking thing” Lance groaned, gesturing energetically with his hands. “I proposed almost a month ago. Can you tell me why the hell did you take so long to tell me you hate the ring?”

Play dumb. Play dumb. “What ring?” Not that dumb! “I mean-” He shifted in the matress. “I- I don’t _hate_ the ring! Who said- who said that?”

“Of _course_ you hate it, honey, what the fuck?” Lance was so upset and Keith didn’t know what exactly he had done wrong. “It’s absolutely hideous”

“It’s not-”

“Keith”

“Fine, it’s ugly as hell” He took it off, and put it on the bed firmly. “It’s so ugly. It’s so ugly I wanted to throw it in the river on my walk yesterday” he yelled, while gesturing at the horrid little thing.

“Oh my god!” Lance laughed, and Keith couldn’t help but follow. He was so relieved Lance wasn’t angry. Or, maybe he was? But he was laughing, and his knee was touching his, so it couldn’t be a bad kind of anger.

Then, he looked at him lovingly, and giggled once again. “Keith, why didn´t you tell me you hated it?”

He didn´t know if he had an answer. “Well, I don’t know. You justlooked so excited and happy talking about the wedding, and- I figured- we love each other. We’re in _love_. That’s far more important than a stupid ring” He shrugged. “In the long term, I thought it wouldn’t matter. As long as I have you. But I will say it was making me upset-”He then stopped in his tracks. “Why are you crying?”

“I just love you so much” Lance cried in a laugh. He had to kiss Keith or he was going to melt with love. “You’re so cheesy”

“Shut up” Keith kissed him again. “May I know now what was this all about?”

Lance sighed, half laughing, and got out of bed carefully, looking to not knock over the tray that held their breakfast. Keith watched him stumble on his own feet as he walked to the other side of the room. He reached under the bookshelf and pulled a small black box from under it.

“Okay, so, I ordered the ring about a month ago. It was supposed to arrive the day of the proposal, but there was a problem with the package. I called and called and first they told me they lost it, then they told me they found it, then they put me on hold for three hours”

“You ordered it for the same day of the proposal?” Keith said, incredously. “You idiot”

“Look, who’s the one who was walking around with a fake ugly ring for four weeks?” Keith laughed. “Anyway, I called the restaurant, I called the flower shop, I called my fireworks guy; none of them would give me another date _or_ the deposit, for that matter” he complained, as he sat down at the bed again. “So I bought a really cheap ring for like 20 dollars, so I could propose to you that day”

“ _Twenty_ dollars? For this?” He grabbed the ring and gestured at it. “Babe, that’s overpriced”

“Right?”

“But, Lance, why didn’t you just tell me you didn’t have a ring?”

“Because that would’ve been like, totally lame!”

“Yeah, and proposing with a twenty dollar ring isn’t” Keith said, sarcastically.

“Cut it out” Lance complained. “Anyway, I was waiting for you to tell me the ring is awful so I could be like ‘haha, pranked you!’ But the weeks went by and- I was starting to get worried, man” he frowned. “I was telling Hunk ‘what if he actually liked it, dude? Does he have bad taste? He does own a couple too many pairs of fingerless gloves’”

Keith chuckled. “What can I say? I’d accept a candy ring”

“Aw, babe”

“But now give me my actual pretty ring”

“Okay”

He got down on one knee, all boxers and messy hair, and Keith thought he looked as beautiful as four weeks before, when he was wearing a suit and had combed back his hair. He could’ve managed with a ten dollar ring, he thought. If these were the mornings he got to have for the next seventy years.

“Keith Kogane, my darling” Lance’s eyes were shining, and Keith felt the tips of his ears glowing red. “Will you marry me?”

“I do. I will. Yes” He laughed, nerviously. He felt like a fool, and he didn’t mind it too much.

Lance went to slide the ring in his finger, but he stopped mid action. "Oh! I had it engraved. It says something inside"

Keith brought it close to his eyes so he could read properly. He gasped. "Are you kidding me?" Lance laughed out loud, like he hadn't all morning. "Lance!"

"Oh, give me a break. If you're going to complain about all the rings I give you" He joked, still giggling michevously, and he smiled so, so brightly, that all the stars gathered in his eyes for a split of a second. Keith wanted to cry. He didn’t, he reached down and kissed Lance as many times as he wanted to instead, before Lance got up from his knees and started kissing him back.

“Oh!” Lance got up, suddenly, as if he had remembered something. He looked around in the drawer of the bedside table, and held up a chain necklace the color of silver. “I almost forgot. I got you this, too, so you can wear it around your neck”

Now Keith _did_ cry. But it was okay, because Lance held him until he stopped crying, and they weren’t exactly sad tears.

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time writing in a long time! i'm so happy with how it turned out! also, what said inside the ring can be whatever you'd like. go crazy. if you liked this follow me on my social media!
> 
> @broccolux on twt, instagram and ko-fi


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